September 8, 2012
Rigoletto at the SF Opera
Fools and Curses at the SF Opera
A lone trumpet set a fragile entrance in the darkened house, followed by melancholy horns. As the curtains rose, a spotlight shone down on a lump of limbs and bells, slowly defined by motion—the hunchbacked jester, Rigoletto. Masked revelers, frozen in the arches, were backlit in red. Leaning into the distance, colonnades mirrored the sharp disaffection and stark shadows of Di Chirico’s “Girl with a...